Sunday, January 28, 2018

I saw a new DNA match
and she was showing up in my 3rd cousin range. However she didn’t
have a family tree showing.

However, I decided to check to see if she possibly had a
tree not attached to her DNA results.

This did not look promising.
However for her to be my 3rd cousin, that could me that we share 2nd
great grandparents. Since I have uncovered all my second great grandparents, I decided to
see if possibly I could build her tree. Her username in Ancestry is her real
name, thus I went to Facebook and see if I could find any possible matches.
There happened to be only one Facebook person who spelled her name the way she
does. I clicked on her profile and saw this.

I looked at the comments on this post and saw a reference to
her mother…

I kept scrolling
through her public profile pics and found a post on one of them for a Susan who
had the same surname as my DNA match plus her username has her maiden name.

Bingo, a possible mother. I then went back to Ancestry and
did a search on her mother with a spouse that equal her surname.

It started off small, I found my DNA match's Birth Index
that confirmed her mother’s name. Then I found a marriage record between her
mother and father. Since all parties were born after 1940, I knew my searches
might not find much more on Ancestry. I then turned to Newspapers.com and found
out her father is a Doctor. I kept looking and finally found her father’s
mother’s obituary. Unfortunately, the obituary did not list her maiden name. I
went back to ancestry and now was able to find her grandmother’s maiden name,
which lead me back to her parents. This lead me to her mother’s maiden name and
this where I found a common name. I took the tree back one more generation and
I stuck gold and found names I knew were in my tree.

My DNA matches 2nd great grandparents are related
to me through two branches of my family. Her 2nd great grandfather
is my 1st cousin 3x removed through my great grandfather’s line
while her 2nd great grandmother is my 2nd great aunt,
through my great grandmother’s line, who happens to be the spouse of my great
grandfather.

One final note: Remember that original post that stated “Its
from Susan - she has 45%”, well I am not related to Susan, I am related to my
DNA match through her father. This explains why I don’t have Susan as one of my
matches.

Therefore I am glad I built out my DNA matches tree. Will I
be this successful every time? Maybe not, however I will never know unless I
try!

Thursday, December 28, 2017

As 2017 winds down, I like to reflect on my genealogy accomplishments.
I started 2017 like I do every year with high hopes of making genealogy more
of a priority.

During 2017, I finally uncovered my biological grandfather.
My three year journey was very exciting and finally being able to put a name to
a blank spot on my pedigree chart was very exciting. I was hoping to create a
family history book on my biological grandfather that I could share with my
siblings, however that was an epic fail. I guess this will get push to my 2018
goals.

I spent most of my genealogy research time this past year
not on my genealogy goals, but on researching prospective members lineages who
wanted to join my local DAR chapter. DAR is the acronym for Daughters of the American
Revolution, in case you didn’t know. Being
my local DAR chapter Registrar means applications of prospective members fall into
my lap. I have learned many new research skills with research in areas that I
was not familiar with and thus I feel as if I have improved my research skills.
Even though the position has been very fulfilling, I am looking forward to the
end my term in 2018 so that I can go back to my own research.

I have decided that in 2018, I will more goal orient. What I
mean by this, I will have clear goals before each session of genealogy research
that I am able to fit into my schedule. I will also make sure to schedule
genealogy into calendar, since we need to make time for the things that we find
important. I also wanted to do more blogging in 2017 and for me to accomplish
this goal in 2018, I will need to schedule that into my calendar too!

Looking back on 2017, I struggled getting into the mood to
do genealogy for too many reasons to cover here. However, looking forward to
2018 I will change this. I was looking at my kindle books and I found many
books that could help me stay motivated. Such as 52 weeks of Genealogy,
Projects for every week of the year by Nancy Hendricks. I was
thinking of perhaps obtaining The Genealogy Do Over Workbook
by Thomas MacEntee or 31 Days to Better Genealogy
by Amy Johnson Crow. Both books have Facebook groups and webpages by the same
name that could help keep my genealogy moving forward. I like books better than
Facebook, because there are too many Shinning Bright Objects to distract me on Facebook,
thus I know I need to stay clear of Facebook when I am supposed to be doing my
genealogy research.

Finally for the record, I have not received any compensation
nor will I receive any monetary compensation from the three books or authors
listed above. The links provided are
just links back to their webpages.

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About Me

I became interested in genealogy as a teenager but waited until I was 20 before I started my research efforts. I have four children and one grandchild. I am researching my family, my husband's family and my half-siblings family.

Besides Genealogy, I enjoy reading, traveling, family, history and games.